Leadership and Achieving Sustainable Solutions: Shifting Landscape of Green Business Practices

Due to the emerging environmental issues and scarcity of resources, leaders in every business have started adopting green business practices worldwide. The preliminary concept of ‘green business’ was developed in the late twentieth century. The notion of green business has always been misunderstood as a challenge which cannot be overcome with basic practices undertaken by leaders. It becomes crucial for leaders in the organizations to explore the green business practices that cannot be universally applied and would be subjective on grounds such as culture, politics, and economic contrasts. Green transformation by businesses, to reach from current state to desired future state, is intended to achieve the long-term goal of incorporating sustainability. The leaders need to consider multiple forces (climate change, increased demand, etc.) that impact (raw material scarcity, public pressure, security concerns, etc.) businesses. The green business transformation process is comprehensive, which requires the active participation of stakeholders, planning and implementation. This chapter will focus on the drivers and barriers of business organizations while following green business practices. On the whole, this chapter will help in developing an understanding about the following: (a) understand leadership and sustainability, (b) explore the changing landscape of green business practices followed by leaders in various business organizations in the Indian context, (c) understand the organizational green transformation strategies adopted by leaders thereby leading to sustainable solutions and (d) explore the drivers and barriers towards implementation of green business practices, by the leaders in various industries.